


Just This Once

by octovoid128



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Eldritch Lyf, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, So basically, anyways it's sad but then it gets better, description of dissociation, he/they lyf, idk if this bothers people but, just to be on the safe side, mentions of blood and being cut in half, this takes place after Out so sorry if that makes you sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23026951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octovoid128/pseuds/octovoid128
Summary: It's all fun and games for the Mechanisms until one of them gets chopped in half. Specifically, until the only one of them that can presumably die gets chopped in half.
Relationships: The Mechansism/The Other Mechanisms, The Mechansisms/Lyfrassir Edda, They are a Polycule, polymechs
Comments: 13
Kudos: 282
Collections: Stowaways' Shenanigans





	Just This Once

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't set in the same setting of any of my other fics I was just thinking about the mechs all dating each other and also Lyf and wanted to write and then the discord server gave me ideas for angst crimes thanks guys

It’s all fun and games for the Mechanisms until one of them gets chopped in half.

Fighting a bunch of  _ things _ with huge swords was supposed to be fun! Except that they were now all running through the halls of the Aurora, completely forgetting that they had a very squishy human on board. One who had elected to stay on board for their own health and safety.

Well, so much for that idea.

Every single one of them can feel their stomach drop when they hear Lyf’s scream tear through the ship. They all rush towards the sound, killing any creature in their path in their single-mindedness to get to Lyf

They find him on the floor, Jonny kneeling beside him covered in the blood of whatever had hit Lyf. Jonny hadn’t been quick enough to stop the creature’s blade from slicing almost clean through him. 

Lyf’s blood slicks the floor as the rest of them kneel by his side. There’s nothing else they can do. Even if they could get him to Doc Carmilla’s lab, that’s not a choice any of them feel comfortable making for Lyf. Besides, what would they even do to mechanize them? The single blow had done so much damage. There is nothing they can do but watch as Lyf’s blood pools beneath them and their labored breathing shudders to a halt.

“Fuck. FUCK!” Jonny stands up and punches the wall hard enough to leave a dent and split the skin of his knuckles. He’s so  _ angry _ . He should have been able to stop it, he should have been able to  _ protect them _ . He was too fucking slow and they had slipped through his fucking fingers. He’d failed again, just like he’d failed Nastya, just like he’d failed everyone else he’d let Doc Carmilla poison with her touch. 

Tim can’t bring himself to look at them any longer. Losing Lyf is like losing Bertie all over again and he just doesn’t have the energy or the enemies to go crazy all over again. There isn’t even a moon to blow up on this shitty planet and even if there was, he doesn’t have the firepower necessary to convey the magnitude of his emotions. So instead he just buries his face in his arms and closes his mechanical eyes. 

Ashes stands up not long after Jonny does, but they are silent as they stride out the door. Where Jonny’s anger is bloody fists and gritted teeth, their anger is a slow and steady conflagration. They are going to burn this planet down to its fucking core if it’s the last thing they do. And they are going to be methodical about it. Maybe there isn’t enough gasoline out there to burn down an entire planet, but that’s never stopped Ashes O’Reilly before. 

Brian is nothing if not efficient. He knows he hasn’t fully processed the emotions that come with witnessing the death of someone he loves so much, so he does what he can to deal with the situation at hand. He knows Ashes well enough at this point that he knows what they’re planning to do, and he knows the Aurora shouldn’t be planetside when they do it. He leaves an escape pod behind for them, even though he’s sure they can find their own way home. It’s just faster this way and he doesn’t want them to be alone for longer than necessary. Aurora creaks sadly as he guides her to take off. She is still grieving the loss of Nastya, and though she doesn’t love Lyfrassir, she feels his loss deep in her bones. 

The Toy Soldier doesn’t love Lyfrassir either. Not in the same way the others love him, at least. Death isn’t something it really understands. The Toy Soldier is not alive, not really. Life is just a fun game of pretend for it. It understands death as the idea of stopping, of no longer wanting to or no longer being able to keep pretending. It understands that Lyf is no longer pretending. The Toy Soldier also doesn’t understand grief very well, but if this is what it feels like, it would very much like it to stop.

Raphaella feels hollow inside. She, Ivy, and Marius have known Lyf the longest. They’ve loved him the longest. When you’re immortal, you expect people who aren’t immortal to be taken away from you quickly. But Raphaella had expected more time than this. Lyfrassir Edda was the most persistent bastard she’d ever met in all her millions of years. Even though the science of their death is clear, she just cannot seem to properly wrap her mind around it.

Ivy had stopped tallying the possibilities that Lyfrassir might die in their company long ago. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten they  _ could _ die, just that every day they’d defied the odds, no matter how large the percentage was. She wonders if she should have today. Maybe if she had, she would have thought about it harder, maybe she would have thought to lead the creatures away from the ship. Maybe she could have stopped it. Her brain is still trying to add something to the zero percent chance they’ll get up, that they’ll be okay, but there’s nothing it can add that sounds like more than a vain hope.

Marius has left the planet long before the Aurora herself does. He’s still on the Aurora, on a physical level, of course. He is still kneeling next to Lyf’s bisected corpse, Lyf’s blood is still seeping into the knees of his pants. But he doesn’t see it. He doesn’t see any of it. He can’t feel the warm blood slowly go cold against his skin. He’s not actually there. It’s such a stark contrast to everything Marius normally is that he’s sure someone should notice he’s gone, but the rest of them are all wrapped up in their own grief. He knows the feeling is there, inside him, but for someone who  _ feels _ as intensely as Marius does, it’s too big to fit all the way inside him. It’s so big it’s pushed his consciousness out through the top of his head and now it doesn’t feel like his body anymore so he can’t see and he can’t feel and he can’t move from that spot. He thinks he might be crying but he can’t be sure.

Lyfrassir is dead. They’re sure they must be. They remember seeing the sword swing down; they remember screaming. They remember a flash of pain and they remember Jonny’s furious yell. And then all they remember is darkness for a while. It’s a strange feeling, not a full unconsciousness like they’d hoped death would be like. But at the same time they don’t know how much time has passed, or if any has even passed at all. Something beyond the darkness shifts and he feels a strange warmth in his stomach. A voice like a razor sliding down his spine laughs from somewhere that is too close to where he thinks his neck is to be comfortable. The warmth in his stomach is starting to grow. Rainbow light explodes behind his eyes and the pain is  _ searing _ like he’s being cooked from the inside out.

And all he can do is scream.

When Lyf finally catches hold of reality again, he finds himself laying on one of the tables in Raphaella’s lab. He doesn’t know how he got there but he knows that he is enfolded in Raphaella’s wings as she holds him tight against her. Her shoulders are shaking and he realizes that she is crying and he doesn’t understand why.

“Raph…?” It hurts to speak, their throat raw from screaming.

Raphaella pulls away from them to stare them in the eyes and then she gives a gasping sob of relief. “You’re back.”

“Where did I go?” They cough weakly at the effort of speaking and Raph just shakes her head and stands up to get them a glass of water.

“Lyf, I… I don’t know how you’re going to take this. You were dead… You were like that for  _ hours _ , long enough for Ashes to come back and then… You just… started screaming. It was almost like you were actively being sewn back together without any anesthetic.” For someone who is all about unethical science, she feels sick when she says it. She doesn’t want that for Lyf. Not in a million years.

Lyf looks at his hands and then back up at Raphaella.

“Why did you bring me here? Why are we in your lab?” They fail to keep the panic out of their voice and Raphaella can feel her heart breaking.

“It was the closest place we could lay you down… it seemed more proper than leaving you on the floor..”

It’s the truth. Lyf knows she’s being sincere. He feels his shoulders relax a little.

“Where are the others?”

“I’ll take you to them. They’ll be glad to see you’re better”

She bundles him into his arms and flies him out the door. 

The second Raphaella sets Lyf on his own two feet, Ivy practically flings herself at him. She pulls him in for a clumsy, sobbing kiss and then pulls back, still holding his face.

"I'm so glad you're okay…" she whispers. She hadn't known what else to do but kiss him. That's what people do in books when someone they love almost dies but then it turns out alright. It isn't  _ really _ alright, but Ivy will settle for still having Lyf.

Both of them are squeezed into an uncomfortable wooden hug by the Toy Soldier, who, though it is still smiling, is as serious as it has ever been in its life.

Lyf had started pretending again, even when it had thought they couldn't. If what it had felt before was grief, perhaps this was relief, and it much preferred the latter.

"TS… I'm glad I'm okay too but would you mind letting go?" It's not an order. Lyf is always careful about not giving orders unless absolutely necessary. The Toy Soldier does let go, though it's reluctant to. It's so glad Lyf is alive.

Ashes, Tim, and Brian all walk over together and gather around him. Tim stokes his hair and Ashes puts a hand on his cheek and Brian takes his hand and holds the back of it to his metal lips. Each of them just needs to touch Lyf, to make sure he's really there, really okay, really  _ alive _ .

Tim weaves his fingers through Lyf's hair, a gentle yet possessive gesture.

"I'm never letting anything like that happen to you again." The others agree in soft murmurs.

Jonny doesn’t want to approach. He doesn't  _ deserve to _ , he's the one who let this happen to Lyf.  _ He's the only one who hasn't approached _ … no. That's not true. 

Marius is still kneeling in the drying puddle of blood on the floor. He's been sitting there for  _ hours _ . Jonny had been so consumed with his own grief he hadn't even realized. He should have noticed. Marius is never quiet for this long. He's never seen Marius like this.

He recognizes the look on his face though. Jonny sees it in his own face when he looks in the mirror sometimes. The overwhelming feeling of  _ too much _ to the point where you can't feel anything at all.

Instead of approaching Lyf, Jonny kneels down next to Marius and places a hand on his back. It's not gentle. Jonny never learned how to be gentle, so it's closer to a clap on the shoulder than a pat on the back. Marius jumps a little bit, blinking, then stares at Jonny, confused, not sure where he is.

"Come on, let's stand you up." He gets to his feet and offers Marius his hand. Marius stumbles as he stands, leaning heavily on Jonny as he unfolds his legs for the first time in hours. 

"Fuck." Marius hisses as his legs turn into radio static below the knees. Jonny lets him lean on him for however long he needs to.

Having something to focus on doesn't make things  _ better _ necessarily, but the pain in his legs and the firmness of Jonny's shoulder to lean on give Marius a bit of reprieve before the emotion that has taken over his body hits him in full force.

Jonny can feel Marius's shoulders shake. He's crying so hard he can't even draw the breath to make a noise. Marius von Raum has never cried quietly a day in his life but now the tears can't be stopped and his sobs catch painfully in his throat. 

Jonny helps him over towards Lyf and the rest of the group and delivers him into Lyf's waiting arms. He plans to retreat immediately, cut himself off from the too-strong emotions threatening to send him over the edge, but Lyf holds a hand out towards him. And he realizes Lyf is looking for comfort just as much as Jonny is and he never could say no to those soft brown eyes, no matter how shot through they are with rainbow. He takes Lyf's hand in both of his and presses it against his forehead. It's an almost instant relief as he too is reassured that Lyfrassir is  _ there, _ he's  _ real _ , he's not going away again.

After a while Marius speaks up, and even though he can't speak above a whisper, his words fill the silent room 

"Can we get out of this room? I… the blood…" Marius is not usually upset over a little spilled blood, but today's been a bad day and they all agree it's far too much to deal with right now. Together the nine of them leave the room to make their way out to the common area of the ship, each one splitting off as they pass their room only to return with an armload of pillows and blankets.

They set up a cozy nest in the common area, with Lyf right in the center. They all pile in around him in a tangle of limbs. 

Ivy begins to read them a book from memory, which somehow devolves into telling one of the many stories the Mechanisms have encountered through the years, which, of course, devolves into raucous song.

They fall asleep curled up together like that, chests and stomachs serving as additional pillows, bodies as extra blankets. And for now, everything is soft and safe. The morning will bring shared kisses and warm breakfast and laughter and probably a few gunshots, but tonight, it is just enough for them to rest. The nightmares are kept at bay by the press of the others around them, warm and protective. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Kris for editing for me!


End file.
